There are many planets on my scans that have 0 defences and they're pretty decent planets for my level (152)... I could easily take them , have my legion defend them, then use a planet vortex deflector. I always defend decent planets like a large Terra, mega rich x4 artifact and a very colossal, Oceanic x15 mega rich research planet. There are planets on my scans with similar stats and have 0 defence! So why do people just leave it defenceless? I'm not complaining because it's a free planet for me but I'm just curious...

1. Because they could take the planet back if you took it. 2. Because they don't need more research so you taking a research planet might be helping them.

because if its under VM and not AP its easy to make and replace

So I should probably do the same then.. I always thought it was a good idea to defend rare planets and/or anything bigger than large...

as your level increases and the planets that you get become better you'll become jaded, example, I dont defend anything that is under 4x mega rich anymore, unless its sepcial to me, or I have it labbeled for a project in the future. >> 473

At your rank you could brick a planet and it still wouldn't stop a high level. My usual strategy is to use the artifact structures you want on it fill with your highest standard research structure, then fill the last few spaces with standard defense structures. Its not a lot, but it does keep them from being taken by some low level and me going through the hassle and cost of taking it back.

Some players, for example myself, have reached the point where anything less than a 15X is pretty much replacable. Most of my planets I put a obv or 2 just to prevent the lowbies from getting greedy, and thats it

Except for that storage planet I lost a few days ago. DAMN you. DAMN you to hell (whoever took it).

I don't defend any planet very well

Chances are if your lucky to find it out of the almost 5 million planets in the game then you can have it (as long as you flux it and prevent me taking it back)

No one has mention cloaking yet (maybe because it might still have some issues), but I would advise any new or low rank player in the game to forget defense and try to cloak your planets as best as possible. Probably any ship over 1k rank can take out at least 30k of defense easily. Your best bet is to hid your planets. Even a couple thousand cloak will do wonders. It certainly will not save you in the long run (because there are a ton of ships scanning all the time too), but it is better to put a little bit into hiding the planet than a lot into defending it. For one, you can't really protect it anyway. And for two, you max out your own production from the planet before the inevitable day of its demise.

Also note, there is another answer to your question. Some people (like myself) are looking for targets. So, even if you steal a planet that is relatively worthless to me, it still gives me a reason to blast you for a couple of days. It is probably a minor trade off and maybe even profitable to you if you gain a 16x mega toxic out of the deal. Just saying, that is a reason some planets are undefended... they are bait.

True, but at rank 152 the cloak structures you're able to place are pretty pitiful and would take up most of your planet just to get to a 1k cloak threshold

i just dropped ALL defences on all my arti planets that were less then multi mega rich, gained myself over 2K arti an hour from it too.
rank 1K, but even before this, they only had MAYBE 6K def after legion bonus


but im in the minority of planets being WAY under defended.
on my scans right now i have atleast 6 STANDARD planets, owned by other rank 1Ks or close, and they have over 30K after legion bonus

and im talking never attacked research planets. plain old very massive rich planets.

Very Massive Gas Planet
Common
Research Extremely Abundant 84 units/hr
Defenses: 19800 0 118% 43164

i attacked it, but it had 15K before that.

Gennorten
Very Massive Metallic Planet
Rare
Defenses: 12600 0 116% 27216
Attack: 11000 0 116% 23760
Mining Rich 68 units/hr
Artifact Extremely Sparse None
Research Extremely Abundant 3.5 units/hr

another stellar planet.
both of those owned by rank 600-700s


Partlan
Very Massive Gas Planet
Common
Controller: Fumbles (Rank 992)
Planet Guards Legion Bonus Total
Defenses: 6200 0 86% 11532
Research Rich 172 units/hr

Leanneva
Very Large Desert Planet
Uncommon
Controller: Payton4 (Rank 900)
Planet Guards Legion Bonus Total
Defenses: 9936 0 102% 20071
Attack: 1000 0 102% 2020
Artifact Very Rich 135 units/hr

Lefsunil
Large Oceanic Planet
Controller: Gypsydream (Rank 661)
Planet Guards Legion Bonus Total
Defenses: 12000 0 108% 24960
planet isnt using all its spaces, aged 11 months+
Artifact Very Rich 4.5 units/hr

Suzamanya
Massive Metallic Planet
Mining Very Rich 76.5 units/hr
Artifact Extremely Sparse 1.5 units/hr
Research Very Rich 40.5 units/hr
Controller: Fnord72 (Rank 754)
Planet Guards Legion Bonus Total
Defenses: 7700 0 110% 16170
Attack: 3800 0 110% 7980
Cloak: 880 0 110% 1848

Salinna
Very Large Metallic Planet
Controller: Arrky (Rank 619)
Planet Guards Legion Bonus Total
Defenses: 8400 0 94% 16296
Mining Very Rich 153 units/hr



the list goes on and on... these players all need an education on whats worth defending and what isnt.


also, unless you CAN cloak WELL past 15K, dont even bother. all high rankers who arent running SSBs, should have 10K scan before buffs. easily reaching 16K without the terminal buff.

Agreed that too many folks keep too many planets defended for too long, however, those might be "project planets." In that case you might add some defense now while you are still farming more npcs to add cloaking. Also, you can get away with 8 to 10k cloak on most planets. It is much riskier, but the payout for production seems to be the sweet spot for me. The way I see it, I need to grow by at least 3k APR each month. Obviously in those months where I lose a rock, I have to overcome it by finding another good one.

i dont even try to cloak anything less then x10 arti.

mining and research have minimal defences.
when i was lower in rank, 400-800ish, they had probably 10-20K MAX,